As a lifelong Western big game hunter, I’ve spent countless hours studying handheld GPS units and smartphone devices to navigate the tangled web of public and private lands to access hidden hunting spots. And as a former North American board member and co-chair of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, I know that many BHA members similarly use these technologies to explore our nation’s 640 million acres of public lands. For more than a decade, handheld GPS mapping devices have revealed millions of ...

In February, the North Dakota chapter was notified that BHA member Don Magstadt had passed away after a battle with cancer, and the family wanted to set up a memorial donation to honor his memory and the places he loved. NDBHA is extremely humbled and grateful for the generosity of the Magstadt family during this time. We would like to extend our sincerest thank you to Don, his wife Mary, and his three boys: Donnie, Christopher and Michael. Don’s reach and impact on the people he met was ...

The state constitution says all waters in New Mexico belong to the public. In 1945, the state Supreme Court ruled that all waters should be open to the public for recreational use, provided the public does not trespass across private land to reach them. Yet for decades, landowners have closed portions of the Pecos, Rio Chama and other streams with the support of NMDGF. We believe this question of whether landowners and NMDGF can prohibit access to a public resource is a major issue for New ...

The State Game Commission did not vote on anything substantial during its special meeting Monday morning, but there were fireworks nevertheless. The commission had called the meeting to discuss “litigation,” but never explained which. Monday was the deadline for the commission to respond to the lawsuit filed by NM BHA and other groups seeking to strike down the commission’s regulation that allows private landowners to ban the public from public waters. The commission has also been sued by ...

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   Published posthumously in 1949, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac is as close to a bible for conservationists as any work can be. In it he discusses things like a “land ethic,” which simply says: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” He reflects on predator control in service of better ...